SANE Australia

SANE Australia describes itself as "an independent national charity working for a better life for people affected by mental illness". It is the operating name for Schizophrenia Australia Foundation.

Funding
According to a 2003 report in The Age, the organisation "relies on drug companies for about 25 per cent of its annual $1 million budget" and they have received money from Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline. 

A 2010 report in The Daily Telegraph states that Pfizer gave SANE $60,750 for the year 2008 and in 2009 gave this organization $129,300. 

SANE Australia's "Helpline Online" is partly funded by AstraZeneca

Their "fact sheet" on treatments declares that "Taking medication is the most decisive thing a person with a mental illness can do" and perpetuates the falsehood that mental illness is simply a chemical imbalance: "Certain medications, assist the brain to restore its usual chemical balance". 

Richard Gosden notes that "SANE Australia is a business name of Schizophrenia Australia Foundation which generally purports to represent the interests of relatives of schizophrenic people." He observes that a pamphlet distributed by Sane Australia in the 1990s called ‘Something is Not Quite Right’ when requested was accompanied by "a note on letter-head which announces that the pharmaceutical company Pfizer is one of the organisation’s sponsors. (Pfizer make a new atypical neuroleptic called ziprasidone)." (Gosden, 2000, p.293)

"The SANE pamphlet advise[d] that if the person demonstrates 'outright resistance to the idea of visiting the doctor, consult with the doctor yourself to work out a plan over time. It may be possible and appropriate for the doctor to assess the person at home'.114 When a person is reluctant to submit to a medical assessment it is likely that the doctor will see the friends or relatives as his/her client rather than the person to be assessed. This introduces a great deal of scope for bias in the assessment particularly since the symptomatology is largely a matter of opinion. Summary detention in a mental hospital or coercion to participate in a pre-psychosis treatment programme are likely outcomes.... The SANE programme of using non-medical people as front-line diagnosticians and encouraging them to identify and report people who are irritating/offensive/disturbing must give some credence to the myth-of-mental-illness model. The potential of using psychiatric coercion for social control is particularly evident in the fourth symptom of the above list: 'be extremely preoccupied with a particular theme, for example, death, politics, or religion'." (Gosden, 2000, p.295)

People

 * Barbara Hocking, Executive director
 * Paul Morgan, Deputy Director (Strategy and Communications)
 * Andrea Kincade, Media relations manager

Contact details
SANE Australia PO Box 226 South Melbourne Victoria 3205 Australia Telephone: +61 3 9682 5933 Facsimile: +61 3 9682 5944 Email: info AT sane.org Web: http://www.sane.org/ and http://www.itsallright.org/

Other SourceWatch Resources

 * Alternative medicines?
 * Astroturf Marketing
 * Chandler Chicco fills the news hole
 * Clinical suppression
 * Disease Mongering
 * Medical Journals and Conflicts of Interest
 * Patient Groups/Australia
 * Swallowing Anything: The Hype Behind Alternative Remedies